On Sept. 27, ULM football hosted the Arkansas State Red Wolves in a Sun Belt matchup for the Warhawks’ homecoming game. Although the Red Wolves came out swinging with an early 10-point lead, the Warhawks stood tall on their home field and came up with the win and a score of 28-16.
The first quarter was all Red Wolves as they came out with an early touchdown within the first two minutes from a pick-six. Most of the quarter was anticlimactic until the Red Wolves scored again with a 51-yard field goal to end the first quarter at 10-0.
With the lively homecoming crowd, the Warhawks were bound to get something going in the second quarter. After over half of the quarter had passed, the Warhawks finally got something going with an eight-yard touchdown pass from Aidan Armenta to Julian Nixon to make the score 10-7, Arkansas State. Late in the quarter, with under a minute left and the teams gearing up for halftime, Armenta threw a beautiful deep ball to Jake Godfrey for a 37-yard touchdown to put the Warhawks on top going into the half.
In the third quarter, the Warhawks kept adding on. With around 10 minutes left, Braylon McReynolds scored a running touchdown from 18 yards out to put the Warhawks up by two scores. About four minutes later, though, the Red Wolves marched down to field goal range to set themselves up for a 43-yard field goal to make the score 21-13, Warhawks, to end the quarter.
Early in the fourth quarter, Arkansas State failed to gain any other momentum besides getting to field goal range one more time to make the score 21-16 and set themselves up for an interesting finish. However, the Warhawks kept their momentum going with around five and a half minutes left. Zach Palmer-Smith led ULM into the endzone one last time with a two-yard touchdown run, ending the game at 28-16 and giving the Warhawks the Rice Bowl title for the first time in 16 years.
ULM football heads to Illinois to take on Northwestern for an out-of-conference BIG 10 matchup. The game will be on Oct. 4 at 2:30 p.m.
